• HotdogVision@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    I’d agree with compelling politicians to change platform only in the case you outline above, where said politician (assuming they are democratically elected) is unreachable through other means of communication. Else I think everyone is free to make their own decision as to what platform/soapbox they want to use, just as much as I have the right to not use that platform.

    • ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io
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      4 hours ago

      People don’t have a right to use Twitter – b/c it’s a private company that excludes people (e.g. people without mobile phones). That’s the first problem.

      I heard a rumor that (like Facebook) Twitter was closing read access so only members could /read/ posts. Did that ever happen? Maybe not, because I was just able to reach a twitter timeline without having Twitter creds as a test. If that exclusivity plays out, then politicians will be writing messages that a segment of people are excluded from viewing. It would not be enough that they can be reached by other means. Politicians would also have to copy all of their messages to an accessible space somewhere.

      It’s also insufficient that I can reach them outside twitter only by non-microblogging means. E.g. by letter. A letter is a private signal not seen by others. Microblogging is an open letter mechanism. It’s important to deliver your msg to a polician in a way that the msg has an audience. Take away the audience and you take away the power of the signal.

      • Blaze@feddit.nlOP
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        3 hours ago

        Twitter was closing read access so only members could /read/ posts.

        It is indeed the case

        • ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io
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          3 hours ago

          I tested by accessing ACLU’s timeline anonymously without an account. Is it different for different accounts?

          (edit) just tested trying to access the acct of someone arbitrary… a broken login popup attempted to render. So I guess different accts are different.

          • Blaze@feddit.nlOP
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            3 hours ago

            I never really understood how it’s managed. I guess Twitter allows you to see a tiny bit of content but then login walls you when you try to navigate

      • HotdogVision@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        People don’t have a right to use Twitter.

        I have a right to use twitter to the same extent as you have a right to use lemmy. Others not having a phone/computer should not infringe on my right to use existing technology, services or software.

        The right to choose to use twitter is markedly different from making it a universal right to be able to access twitter.

        It’s also insufficient that I can reach them outside twitter only by non-microblogging means.

        Public protest existed for centuries prior to Twitter, and it’s not as if the only choices are Twitter or private letter. There are many other channels of communication around, some of which public.

        • ciferecaNinjo@fedia.io
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          2 hours ago

          I have a right to use twitter to the same extent as you have a right to use lemmy.

          Not in the slightest. Twitter is like a private road controlled by a single gatekeeping corporation whose private property rights are the only rights to speak of – and it’s run by a right-wing populist who controls who can participate. Lemmy is like a network of public roads without centralized ownership, where the concept of rights is not even needed because there is no central corporate control.

          The right to choose to use twitter is markedly different from making it a universal right to be able to access twitter.

          Why are you talking about a universal right to access Twitter? AFAIK, no one here endorses that.

          Either you lick Musk’s boots or you bounce. Those are your choices. Politicians who lick Musk’s boots and drive exclusion cannot effectively represent the people.

          Public protest existed for centuries prior to Twitter

          Those are different times. We are in Twitter times. Shouting on a street corner brings a smaller audience than posting on Twitter. Higher effort and less exposure; for not licking Musk’s boots. And because of network effect, non-Twitter methods have lost ground to an unequitable elitist platform that exludes people without mobile phone numbers as well as those wise enough not to share their number with Twitter, and those who object to feeding a right-wind ad surveillance platform. The open letter audience someone would have in a free world is dimished because the audience has their eyes glued to Twitter, who poached them by exploiting network effect.